I guess you're just going to brush aside the whole Alderaan thing, right?

For this exact thing, I agree with you. But it's hinting at something I definitely want to see: a computer in my pocket that can connect and conform to any screen/input available.

While I'm out and about, I attach it to a tablet-sized dumb touchscreen (that costs much less than tablets do today) and jot down some notes. Then when I get home, I attach it to a 24" monitor (or two) with mouse and keyboard. I start where I left off, and everything is the same except the UI has adapted. Once I'm done with my work, I warm up some food and sit down in the living room to review the work on the TV using the appropriate remote interface (or gestures a la Kinect).

Now, that's cool but that computer stick is probably not very powerful. Let's take it further... when I get home, not only do I attach a large screen with mouse and keyboard input, but I also have addon CPU and GPU cores, memory, and so on to enhance the capabilities from a simple stick to a powerful PC.

Sure, most of what I want is either possible today or will be soon via cloud synchronization. But I think there's still something to be said about having this capability independent of the Internet and a large corporate entity controlling my experience.

You are so right. There is absolutely no way to plan around this. We must shut down the whole thing now and forevermore.

According to WinBeta, interoperability with other browsers is the goal of Spartan. Compatibility (for legacy/enterprise sites) is the goal of IE. IE's Trident engine will not be updated except for security fixes, and Spartan's Edge engine will move forward with modern standard, new features, and improved performance.

Non-compete agreements should work both ways. If I can't work for a competitor, then you can't replace me with another employee.

When you are actively responsible for the lives of 150 people, then yes, absolutely, without any doubt whatsoever, this should happen.

Good regulations can help people and in this case may have saved lives. What I find abhorrent is your attitude that over a hundred human lives aren't worth a very slight inconvenience.

This brings to mind a more literal meaning of "going around the world to scratch your ass".

I assumed each entire string could be read or written in one operation, that's why I used O(n). But that certainly may have been a faulty assumption, considering memory/disk paging and such things that I rarely deal with at my day job.

Specifically, the time measured to write to memory uses the following code:

  for (int i=0; i < numIter; i++) {
          concatString += addString;
  }

The time measured to write to disk uses the following code:

  for (int i=0; i < numIter; i++) {
          writer.write(addString);
  }
  writer.flush();
  writer.close();

In Java, strings are immutable. Each string concatenation produces a new string on the heap, and the old string is unchanged. So there are numIter strings created in memory, and I assume garbage collection will probably happen at some point once enough memory is used. O(n) reads and O(n) writes to the heap with O(n^2) memory usage plus an unknown number of garbage collections. This can cause considerable slowing of the in-memory algorithm.

That algorithm is then compared with one that does numIter writes to a buffer, which is then flushed to disk at the end. O(n) writes to memory buffer (no need to re-read memory) using O(n) memory space, followed by O(1) writes to disk and O(n) disk space used.

Granted, it's been over a decade since I took algorithms so I wouldn't doubt that someone can show how I am off, but this kind of thing should be simple to spot for anyone who has an undergrad CS degree.

PS - I love how the paper makes this aside as if it doesn't matter tremendously:

Um, what? Are you seriously suggesting that this entire mobile revolution/craze is all about 99-cent and freemium apps made by independent developers?

My experience is different; I only have a couple of apps that aren't made by huge companies. But mainly I use a phone because it is convenient. I have plenty of desktop and laptop screens at my house, but I don't have those in my pocket.

Granted... from a "real security" standpoint, this is probably amongst the most difficult situations to exploit effectively. Heat transfer isn't exactly broadband. I imagine you'd be doing well to get 1 bpm (bit per minute) communications. The exploit code would probably need to include a sophisticated AI just to figure out what is important enough to transmit.

Wow, please pay attention.

read:

I never stated that no other security breach already existed, but that a new one is being added.

Consider this scenario: government systems, one computer is internet facing, the other computer is completely isolated. Joe Badguy installs each computer before they are put into real use, and adds the exploit to each. The government beefs up physical security, then enables the internal system confident that data added to it cannot leave. But sometime later, Joe Badguy connects to the internet facing computer, then extracts new data from the isolated computer via the exploit.

Maybe now you understand the difference between real security, which can exist in layers and multiple forms simultaneously, and simplistic considerations like BOs.

mov eax, $phantomfive_understands
cmp eax, 0x1
jne read

This technique re-establishes communication which provides a mechanism for a malicious user to regain control. It could be used to load new malicious software, download sensitive data, and establish a proxy into other disconnected internal systems.

So I fail to care about which term is used, it is a security breach and one of the worst kind... the kind where you think you're completely safe, but you still aren't.

Parties changed during a time when the nation was young and the parties were relatively weak and had less of an identity. Regardless, it was mostly a two party system the entire time, it's just that the two major parties realigned somewhat.

If the Republican Party were to die out, being replaced by the Tea Party, would you really say that America is not a two-party system? Because that's pretty much the same thing as your claim.

You are missing frank_adrian314159's point. Our voting system, first-past-the-post, inevitably causes the two party system we have, and there's no practical way to fix it without changing the voting system.

CGP Grey has a wonderful set of short videos explaining why first-past-the-post is bad and what alternatives exist.